Wendell Pierce

And that's where I live to this day.

I'm still there in Puncher Train Park.

It is the most important thing we have right now in our time, in our generation.

People are actively trying to erase who we are as a people.

I am only minutes away from the Pentagon as I speak right now, and I remember my father admiring General Chappy James, Benjamin Chappy James, and to know that they just removed his painting from the Pentagon.

And whatever reason they come up with,

We all know the reason.

It's just racist.

And the idea of trying to eliminate any sort of contributions that the African-American community has made to this country in the year that we try to celebrate 250, it is so insulting.

It is so aggressively, it feels like a visceral attack.

My brother was purged out of his job here in Washington, D.C.

I know so many people, and so many black women in particular, this attack on minorities and women in a world where people are trying to erase them.

We realize that that is our call to duty of our generation.

which is we know now that we have to mark our passing on the tree and declare who we are, who we were, what our accomplishments are and have been and what we have created and exercise our right of self-determination and declaration of accomplishment.

We owe that to our ancestors.

We owe that to the generations yet to come because they're those who do not have our best interest at heart.

Thank you.

I really appreciate it.